Light: Exploits, Book II.

Part 15. Desperation.

Priest and I skulked around in the dark for about 15 minutes before we found an incline that lead back to the chambers above.
Rei is gonna be pissed we found the way up first, I sigh with a smile as we climb up.
Rei, Farah, we found a way up, I say into my comms. A second later, there are two soft sighs of defeat coming from the other end.
Sending you coordinates, I say with a soft shake of the head and a smile.
Priest and I barely have enough time to look at the rock clusters before Rei climbs up the side of the wall, tugging Farah along after her.
Well, now that that's out of the way, I say softly and look around.
The area wasn't unlike our foray into the canyon when we first arrived.
In fact, it was almost entirely similar.
Only instead of an inky, black, night sky, it was a massive cave formation underground.
I felt a chill run down my back and I shivered slightly as I raised my hand.
I palmed Light, and tossed it high up into the air.
It floated for a moment before it rose and hit the high ceiling.
It then bobbed and pulsed, releasing light into the chamber, enough so we could see small trails connecting the cave walls, and subsequent caves, to one another.
Fucking Hiven... I swear to myself.
The cave walls were dotted, again, with holes of varying sizes.
Farah, I say softly. You're with me. Priest, Rei, you two stay on this side. Comms on, and Ghosts, keep our energy markers up for any surges. Odds are its gonna be that Knight from before.
I look back and see Farah walking in front of Rei and Priest. Priest is anxious to begin exploring, while Rei stands staunch for a moment.
Why not you and I? She asks plainly.
I put up my hand, and birth purple fire.
I hear her chuckle, and she turns around to begin looking around the caves on her side.
Farah and I inch our way across the thin rock trail until we reach the other side.
Wind howls quietly up from the pit, the light from above not even reaching the bottom.
It's so creepy... I hear Farah say with a small voice.
What do you mean? I ask.
That; the Darkness down there, she says with a shiver.
I can feel it.
I had almost forgotten Farah died.
I couldn't fathom what she experienced.
What was death to her?
Was it a calming? Release?
Or rather a curse?
Would she be forced to relive her death? Her pain? Her failure, to protect us and The Traveller?
She had never failed, mind you. But The Darkness would have tormented her.
Made her hate herself; hate Light.
Wretched as it may be, I say after a moment.
Remember not all that is dark, is Darkness, I say with a soft smile.
And not all who wander, are lost, Farah says with a soft, chipper tone.
I peered back at her and looked at her with wonder.
"Not all who wander, are lost," her words echoed in my mind.
After our talk, we began to explore several of the small caves.
Most had only rocks or dust. Some had what appeared to be egg clusters; most likely for the Feeders we faced above.
I was on my 6th cave when Farah to called me from outside.
Dylan, I'm picking something up, she said with a curious voice.
Rei, Priest, we might have something over here, I say as I stand up from a strangely, but benignly glowing rock circle.
I leave the cave, and Farah, with her back to me, is standing at the edge of the trail that drops right down into the chasm.
Her hand is ungloved, and her fingers are twitching in what, I can only assume, is sub-temperature environs.
What is it? I ask, resting my rifle against my shoulder firmly as I feel a soft chill.
Farah stand still for a moment, and I hear her breathe deep.
He knows we're still alive, she said with a soft hush.
Who? I ask simply, yet gently.
She turns to face me, and her Ghost appears before her.
The Crusader, her Ghost says with a whisper.
In a deafening boom, there was a mass of ethereal, pitch-colored fire that roared to life behind Farah.
In the instant it happened, I was able to make out the face of that Knight from before.
The Crusader.
I dared not taunt him, for fear of what he would do to my fellow Guardians.
But, I didn't have to.
In a swift motion, his ghostly form snatched Farah's Ghost, and froze it in Darkness.
Farah and I watched in horror as the Darkness began to bleed sparks, metal, and Light.
The Crusader then took up Farah by her arms.
I ran for him, and heard gunfire from across the way by Priest and Rei.
The Crusader puts out his hand, and a hole is bored through my chest.
I collapse as my Ghost appears and begins to mend me.
I'm forced to watch as The Crusader takes a sword, and cleaves through Farah's abdomen.
She screams as sparks and Light bleed from her, and her legs fall from beneath her.
The Crusader laughs as he half-throws her arm away from him, and tosses the small ball of Darkness that killed her Ghost in after her as she falls to the Darkness below. He disappears in black fire.
With a still sizable hole in my chest, I bolt up and dive off the edge after her and and her dead Ghost.
I pinpoint her Ghost's dying light in the suffocating Darkness and see it lying motionless.
It's surrounded by writhing, pitch Darkness, bleeding Light and coughing sparks.
I'm gentle to scoop it up, and I hold it tightly against my chest.
Farah is lying, bleeding synthetic fluid, from her Exo body, and gasping in pain.
I can't feel my legs... She cries.
I follow her cries and see her.
Prices and Rei thud behind me, their Ghost's lights illuminating the scene.
I need Void Light! I scream. NOW!
After a moment, I hear two voices, from Priest and Rei in unison, say, Ward of Dawn is 5 minutes up.
What I was about to attempt was maddening, by any degree.
But there was an old saying adhered to by Voidwalkers.
Those who have stared into the Void are not bound by the laws of space and time.
Time, being my focal point.
What's the plan? Priest asks.
I'm not sure why I didn't try it the first few times, but I'm going to, I begin, but I realize how impossible what I'm going to attempt will be.
I'll wrap her Ghost in Void Light, and I'll rewind it, I say as I clutch the Ghost.
My Ghost appears before me.
That will require tremendous amounts of Void Light, not only for your sake, but for Farah's, it says with curiosity.
Which is why I have two Titans, I say softly, peering back at them.
This hasn't ever been done, much less attempted. What if something unexpected happens? My Ghost asks.
Priest and Rei share concerned looks beneath their helmets.
I'd rather try, and know something unexpected happens, than lose her all over again, I say with a whisper.
In the following minutes, we waited agonizingly as Farah tried to breathe.
My Ghost had done its best to numb her pain, and too shared the sickeningly familiar feeling of it all.
Ward of Dawn, ready, Priest and Rei say, in unison again.
This next part was tricky.
Stand far enough apart so that your Wards overlap, and leave space in the middle, I say as I still hold Farah's dead Ghost.
It's cocoon like tomb of Darkness was filthy in my hands.
But I focused Light into it. Told her I'd save her.
I only asked she trust me.